Teenage pregnancy.

OBJECTIVES

This article examines trends in teenage pregnancy in Canada, focussing on induced abortions, live births and fetal loss among women aged 15 to 19 in 1997.

DATA SOURCES

The data come from the Hospital Morbidity Data Base and the Canadian Vital Statistics Data Base at Statistics Canada, and the annual Therapeutic Abortion Survey, conducted by the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Data on abortions performed on Canadian residents in the United States are from an annual survey of selected states. International data are from the Alan Guttmacher Institute.

ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES

Pregnancy rates, abortion rates, live birth rates and fetal loss rates are calculated using population counts of women in the age groups 15 to 17, 18 to 19, and 15 to 19. The percentages of pregnancies that ended in the three outcomes are also calculated for these years.

MAIN RESULTS

The teenage pregnancy rate declined from 1994 to 1997, reflecting lower teenage birth and fetal loss rates. Through this period the abortion rate remained stable, with the result that slightly more than half of all teenage pregnancies ended in abortion by 1997. Younger teens are more likely to have an abortion than to give birth. The majority of pregnancies among older teens end in a live birth, although the number of live births is decreasing.